At the turn of the decade the tendency of retrenchment in organisations appeared as a byproduct of an ongoing recession threatening with heavy consequences for the future. In the…
Abstract
At the turn of the decade the tendency of retrenchment in organisations appeared as a byproduct of an ongoing recession threatening with heavy consequences for the future. In the big organisations, like the Fortune 500 Companies, the number of people employed full time shrunk from 19% of the workforce two decades ago to less than 10% (Castro, 1993). Initially justified by marketing difficulties due to foreign competition, retrenchment has become fashionable and a kind of panacea, although actually only about a third of the companies which performed major lay‐offs reported increases in productivity and profits, while a plummeting morale surfaced in 80% of the cases. Therefore, more and more such organisations are getting, as it were, “lean and lame” (Henkoff, 1994).
Edgar Krau and Liora Ziv
Traditionally, the process of choosing a vocation has been presented as the matching of a person's interests and aptitudes with occupational requirements. Maintaining the…
Abstract
Traditionally, the process of choosing a vocation has been presented as the matching of a person's interests and aptitudes with occupational requirements. Maintaining the individual's role as an agent in the process of “self‐selection into an occupation” (Krech, Crutchfield and Ballachey, 1962), one ought to give attention not only to the push‐ but also to the pull‐ factors, i.e. to the occupational appeal which embodies the occupation's motivational “valence” (to use the term coined for a social context by Lewin, Dembo, Festinger and Sears, 1944).
The feeling of a low quality of life is not an inevitable aftermath of industrial progress, but the two phenomena may become linked in conditions of heavy competitive behaviour…
Abstract
The feeling of a low quality of life is not an inevitable aftermath of industrial progress, but the two phenomena may become linked in conditions of heavy competitive behaviour stemming from strong achievement orientation. Study of the relationship between quality of life and objective vocational success, and achievement motivation and spiritual values, conducted among new immigrants from the USSR, Romania and South America, shows that quality of life feeling is more determined by the value orientation of the individual's reference group than by personal objective achievements and failures. The general progress of industrial society is feasible without the stimulating effect of competitive achievement motivation, if spiritual community values are fostering hard labour. Industrial progress should be considered not as an end in itself, but as a means to live a life of high quality, both as an objective situation and as a feeling of satisfaction.
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This paper seeks to examine the efficacy of predicting turnover for employees and entrepreneurs from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania using attitudes towards benefits, pay…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to examine the efficacy of predicting turnover for employees and entrepreneurs from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania using attitudes towards benefits, pay satisfaction, pay, gender, and age across a four‐year time frame.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey that included information on attitudes towards benefits and pay satisfaction was used to collect data from 153 Estonian, 157 Latvian, and 146 Lithuanian employees and 243 Latvian, 103 Estonian, and 109 Lithuanian entrepreneurs. The turnover of the employees and business owners was then followed over a four‐year time period with assessments done each year allowing for an examination of temporal variations in the relationships over time. Actual salary/income data was also obtained from organizational records.
Findings
It was found that for the employee samples the classification rates increased slightly as compared to base rates over time (e.g. did better the longer the time period included), while for the employers the classification rates and R2 values were relatively flat as compared to base rates. For the employee samples the R2 values decreased over time. Attitudes towards benefits were generally significant predictors of turnover for employees and entrepreneurs over a four‐year time period while satisfaction with pay was typically significant for employees but not for entrepreneurs. It was also found that for the employees both equity and expectancy considerations were able to explain differences in turnover rates while for entrepreneurs expectancy theory considerations were more powerful than equity theory explanations.
Research limitations/implications
The research is limited both by geography, job types, and the theoretical construct of turnover. Few studies have examined turnover among both employees and business owners, and few studies have explored the similarities and differences between the two.
Practical implications
Pay and benefits are important for employees. Pay seems to be important for attracting employees while benefits are important for retaining them.
Originality/value
This study examines turnover for both employees and entrepreneurs with a four‐year longitudinal design with data from three different countries – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Temporal variations in the relationships are also examined on a year by year basis. As employee retention has been an important factor in the Baltic region over the last two decades it is vital to understand how to retain employees.